Reprieve from sacking for Ryde Council general manager

Kelly Burke Urban Affairs

The general manager of Ryde council will keep his job until the local government elections on September 8.

John Neish faced dismissal after councillors voted six to five at a meeting last month to terminate his contract.

Mr Neish has reported to the Independent Commission Against Corruption allegations of misconduct by several of the councillors seeking his dismissal.

A recision motion lodged at the same meeting by a councillor supporting Mr Neish, Nicole Campbell, in effect put a stay on the dismissal until a further vote could be put to council tonight.

But on Monday, the mayor of Ryde council, Artin Etmekdjian, sought an injunction in the Supreme Court to prevent councillors from voting against tonight's recision motion, on the grounds that if the motion was defeated, Mr Neish's whistleblower status would make his sacking unlawful.

Under the Public Interest Disclosures Act it is illegal to take reprisals against a public servant because they have reported misconduct allegations against another to authorities.

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Justice Lucy McCallum placed an interim injunction on the three councillors who are the subject of Mr Neish's allegations to the corruption commission, preventing them from voting on the recision motion. Given past voting patterns, this means at least five of the remaining nine councillors will vote to keep Mr Neish in his position.

The Herald is prevented by a non-publication order from revealing the names of the three councillors under injunction.

Lawyers acting for the six councillors seeking to sack Mr Neish argued that the general manager only made his allegations to the commission two days after he learnt an extraordinary general meeting had been called by Cr Ivan Petch to terminate Mr Neish's contract. They argued it was possible the councillors were unaware they were even the subject of any misconduct allegations at the time they decided to dismiss Mr Neish, whose contract states he can be dismissed without any reason given.

But Justice McCallum said Mr Neish had the undisputed reputation of an outstanding employee of the council, so it "pointed inexorably" to the possibility that his public interest disclosures to the ICAC were at least part of the reason why his dismissal was sought.

One of the councillors pushing for Mr Neish's dismissal said he did not know whether he was one of the councillors now under an injunction, and he was not aware of any public interest disclosures and whether they involved him.

"But [Mr Neish] is not a whistleblowing manager. We don't have to give a reason to terminate [his contract]. We have a reason, but I won't give it you," he said.

The injunction will remain in place until a week after the elections on September 8, but a council law will prevent any councillor from bringing a fresh motion to sack the general manager for a further three months, if tonight's recision motion is passed.

If it is, Mr Etmekdjian said council would seek to have the entire matter deferred until after the corruption commission has completed its investigation.

It is possible some councillors will absent themselves from tonight's meeting, depriving it of a quorum to vote on the matter. Councillors have already been served two warning notices from Ross Woodward, the chief executive of the division of local government in the Department of Premier and Cabinet, over over numerous occasions in the past year when the council was left inquorate.

At the heart of the dispute is the redevelopment of the Ryde Civic Centre, with six councillors supporting the current proposal and six in opposition.

The level of hostility and inability to agree prompted Cr Campbell to call on the state government last week to intervene because the council had become dysfunctional.

After the latest court decision, Mr Neish said it was "good to have confidence in the legal system which protects whistleblowers and I thank those councillors who have supported me during this difficult time for me and my family".